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Here’s a great video review of our micro game that came out last year (first from a successful Kickstarter campaign and now it’s available to purchase online – for only $5 – click here to check that out).

The review covers the rules and then his opinion (spoiler alert – he likes it!):

“Much easier to teach than Carcassone and yet there are good decisions there.”

News just broke today that our new game, But Wait There’s More will not make it in time for Christmas! So if you’ve been thinking that would make the perfect Christmas present for pretty much everyone on your list – well, you’d be right – but you’re going to have to wait until next year before you can give it to them!

Apparently China was having a tough time finding 30-second timers and that held up production. This puts us back a few weeks for delivery to all the Kickstarter backers and a few more weeks to retail stores. But this gives us something to spend all our Christmas money presents on right? Right?!

We here at Inspiration to Publication want to share stories from other designers about their process of getting their games published. So if you are a designer and you have a story – we want to hear it! Please contact us and we’ll figure it out.

Here’s a guest post by fellow game designer, Patrick Lysaght. Patrick took us through his impressions of attending Origins as a designer – which was quite insightful. Today is an exciting day for Patrick because his game has launched on Kickstarter! Let’s see what time does to a game design.

The Power of Time in Game Design, by Patrick Lysaght

Glory & Riches launched on KickStarter this morning. By the time the campaign is over, the design will be two years old. It will be another 6 months or so until the game hits shelves. At this point, the primary changes will be the final cuts with art/layout. Reflecting on the development of the game over the last week brought something important to my attention. Waiting for something to happen is not wasted time, it is a critical element in the refinement process.

When an idea is fresh and new, the creative process consumes your brain. You rapidly innovate, solve problems, and face large challenges. If a design show potential, you transition into a development phases where the problems become simultaneously smaller and harder. A primary example in Glory & Riches was the balance between the strength of Economic Expansion mechanisms and Military Conquest mechanisms. I spent months tweaking, adjusting, pouring over minute details, and frustrating playtesters. This is essential to a solid design, but it is not fun.

This second step, however, is not the waiting I am talking about. For me, this step ended around October 2013. At this point, I thought the game was done from the design standpoint. Effectively, I stopped working on the game, and focused on some other things. I was ready to handoff the project to the publisher and artist. I actually thought I did. I was wrong. One day a few months later, a new layout design occurred to me out of nowhere. It elegantly solved a problem I had brute-forced with an earlier method. The new concept reduced production cost, answered playtester-feedback, and was very visually appealing. The cost of this idea was months of subconscious thought. Without that time, the game would not be as good as it is today.

Another key ingredient to the power of time in game design is the outside perspective it allows you to gather. For example, Glory & Riches is a resource-management and area control game. Early on, it suffered from the first-player initiative problem. Going first conveyed too powerful of an advantage. I developed a system which reprogrammed turn order based on geographical control. I solved the problem…too well. The game exploded from 2 to 4 hours. Players could not sustain any gains. I reverted to the original scheme out of a desire for simplicity and gameplay. Then the breakthrough came.

Months later in a meeting with the publisher (Jolly Roger Games), the owner suggested an auction format. This simultaneously resolved the initiative problem, increased player agency, and balanced the value of resources in the game’s final phase. He didn’t see all of those elements at the time, but his suggestion made the instant connection in my mind. I couldn’t have arrived at that point without outside input. Importantly, this meeting happened a month after the initial target date for the KickStarter. The delay afforded insight, and produced a much better product.

From what I have gathered, 2-3 years has become a standard cradle-to-shelf window. When I started, I thought it could move much faster. If I could have rushed it through the process, I probably would have. I’m glad I didn’t. I am proud of the finished product. I hope that you will enjoy playing it as much as I do. Give your game time to age into maturity. You will be surprised how much a few extra months can improve it.

It’s been a wonderful couple of weeks here as I’ve received a bunch of Kickstarter games in the mail! Yeehaw!

I played a quick round of Cinelinx and I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with my movie friends! It’s an interesting party games where you play cards that have movies, actors, genres, and directors on them – next to each other – but only if they have something in common. It was more head scratchy than I thought it was going to be. You can now get your own copy here.

I also got Progress and Tiny Epic Kingdom in the mail – and both look really great. I am just reading the rules right now but I’m excited to dig into both asap!

What’s worth backing right now on Kickstarter? Well there are a couple of games that jump out at me:

Steampunk Rally from Roxley Games and designed by Orin Bishop. This is one of the most impressive and professional Kickstarter campaigns I have ever seen. It’s obvious that Roxley has spent a lot of time observing how other Kickstarter campaigns work and seems to be doing everything right! On top of that, the game looks super cool! A steampunk game that is actually a steampunk game!! It’s not just a tacked on theme. Definitely check this one out! As I write, the game is at $37,000 of its $42,000 goal – and with 25 days to go, it’s obviously going to knock that out of the park. I’m pretty sure we’ll hit all the stretch goals that are announced too – so I hope Roxley is coming up with more!

Lanterns: The Harvest Festival from Foxtrot Games and designed by Christopher Chung. This is a fun game that I’ve play tested and will be one of those easy to pick up and play games that will ensure it gets a lot of playtime on game tables. Easy to understand rules but with some neat twists where all players get some sort of benefit on your turn, so it’s always challenging determining where to place your tile! The game has reached its funding goal of $10,000, as it’s now at $22,000 – but we’re about $1400 away from the next stretch goal of wooden favour tokens. So check this out so I can get cooler stuff! 🙂

You know that hit game that was super successful on Kickstarter but for some reason you missed out on it? Well now you can! This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the 2-4 of Us is now available on the BGG store! You can get a copy for only $5! Now that’s a bargain. Head on over to the BGG Store and check it out and buy a copy or twelve.

Happy Tuesday people – we did it (and by we, I mean you!!). Our newest game that’s on Kickstarter right now has achieved its humble goal of $3000 today! Huzzah! That’s really fantastic! My hope is that we make it to the $6000 goal since that will unlock a 6th player – which includes another company card as well as more voting cards.

If you have backed it already – hey, thanks so much! We’re very excited about this game and the potential it has in the market. Please continue to share and tell people about it because now you’re going to get MORE stuff if we reach some stretch goals!

If you haven’t backed it yet – why not? Even non-party game fans have had a great time with this game. We’ll be sharing some reviews this week about the game (see below for a fantastic audio review from the Party GameCast).

Our new game, But Wait There’s More is tracking well on Kickspy…well – it’s tracking well for a party game! It’s in the top 50 games right now and climbing! We’re already 60% to our target, but we could sure use some more lovin’ – so if you haven’t checked it out yet – please do (Kickstarter link for BWTM here!) and back it or even help to spread the word a little! Party games don’t get as much attention as fantasy themed games do – but we’re really proud of this game and we think it’s worthy of existing in your game collection!

Here are a few things that people are saying about the game so far. These are comments found on the Kickstarter Comment page. If you backed the game and have some comments – please add your thoughts!

“Seriously, this is great. BWTM is in the top 3% percent of party games that perfectly mix spontaneity, interaction and laughter. Finally, I can get a copy.” – Chris Handy, designer of Cinque Terra and the upcoming line of micro games called Pack O Games (you can check out his Kickstarter here)

“I played an old prototype of this game with my family, and my aunt said this was her favourite game. “This is *fun*! Why don’t you bring more games like this?”” – Don Kirkby

“I absolutely love this game!!! We had the opportunity to play this game multiple times with Ed. This game is fun and hilarious! I am very impressed. I can’t wait to get my copies so that I can demo this game for my family and friends!!” – Samuel Stidham

“I’ve had the chance to give this a spin and I must say I’m impressed. Perfect light party game! It definitely scratches the “improv” itch that I haven’t seen in a game before.” – Eric Lalande

“Ed Bryan demoed this for a small private party. A couple of us don’t like party games but Ed managed to persuade us to try it. Got to admit that it was fun and hilarious. Great game.” -Xyetay

Great to see people already enjoying the game! You can to…if you act now! 🙂 We’re on track to hit our target, but I really think it would be awesome if we could at least get to $6000 because then we unlock the 6th player – which just makes the game more versatile. You can play up to 10 right now – but with 3-5 players you play on your own, and with 6-10 you play with a partner. With the stretch goal adding a 6th player you can play 3-6 player as individual or 7-12 players with a partner!!

Check out this great interview (well of course it’s great – check out the subject matters!) of us by Inquisitive Meeple. A lot of it focuses on our upcoming Kickstarter game, But Wait There’s More! Learn a few things about the game before it launches and check out some new pictures of the components as well.

Our new game is coming soon to Kickstarter, which will make it our fourth game to launch on Kickstarter. Our first was Belfort: The Expansion Expansion and then we followed that up with two at the same time this past February – This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the 2-4 Of Us from Tasty Minstrel Games and Tortuga from Queen Games.

This new game is a party game called But Wait, There’s More! In the game players take the role of an infomercial sales person where you have to sell the other players a product using one Feature card from your hand and one Feature card drawn randomly halfway through your pitch. All the Features are common phrases and ideas that you’ve heard or seen in other infomercials. It’s definitely the funniest game we’ve ever designed!

We’ll share more about the Kickstarter campaign when it launches – possibly within a week!! In the meantime we’d like to unveil the new box art as well as the files so you can print and play the game with a portion of the cards.

If you do try it out, please let us know what you think as we’d love to have a few more quotes from gamers about their thoughts on the game for our Kickstarter campaign!

The European Kickstarter supporters are starting to receive their copies of our game Tortuga!

I’ve personally never looked back at any old Kickstarter Threads -Jay and I are not the creators of the project, so I’m not aware of the chatter that occurs after funding. So today was the first time I’ve ever went back to read an old KS comment page and it’s nice to see people receiving the projects they pledged for and hopefully we’ll start hearing reactions soon.

If you still haven’t got your copy yet (Thanks again for your support!), here’s some pics to tide you over! Thanks to the Daily Aviator (www.dailyaviator.net) for taking some shots of the base games and the current expansions!